Overseas 27
Stompers 20

These two teams treated the large crowd to one of the best games of rugby at Marsa.

Both sides were prepared to attack from deep with Stompers distributing the ball wide, through the fine passing of the half-back partnership of Willis and Zerafa, and Overseas showing excellent combinations of driving and quick-thinking offloads to close support.

The Stompers’ front row were superior and this made some of the Overseas possession difficult, but half-backs Duffy and Wright managed to release persistent and effective attacks. The Stompers hooker, Sullivan, looks a good prospect.

Stompers shoved the Overseas back but Wright launched a good attack, received a quick ball from an offload, split the defence with a change of pace and put Downs in for a fine try to open the scoring

The Stompers forwards showed fire after their backs won ground and Delia scrambled over to equalise

The Overseas full-back took a perfectly-timed pass on the burst to break the Stompers’ centre-line which culminated in Down getting his second try.

Then Overseas failed to catch a high ball which gifted Stompoers some 50 metres and they began a long siege of the line. Overseas’s Rulli was yellow-carded for persistent defence infringements and Stompers managed to score despite their opponents’ stout defending.

Quick ball was won at the lineout, whipped across wide with a loop by Zerafa which created an overlap for Galea to score.

Overseas fought back and the game swung from end to end, with a mix of straight hard running and angled interchanges. Overseas prop Camilleri gave away an offside by not retreating, Willis placed a good kick in the corner and after a series of rucks and mauls, Pace-Moore drove over to give Stompers a 15-10 half-time lead.

The restart, with Overseas now enjoying the backing wind, was a little disappointing as the pressure told. There was a lot of inaccurate kicking backward and forward.

Willis was lucky to stay on the field after what looked like a deliberate trip. Buttigieg, of Overseas, failed to clear a long ball and Stompers pressed hard. However, the Overseas defence held firm and drove the ball back upfield.

Wright made a superb run for Overseas, proving himself easily the best fly-half playing in Malta today, and released Downs for his hat-trick of tries. Overseas levelled the scores.

A controversial decision by referee Steve Busuttil saw Stompers gain territory and again the forwards worked a series of drives for Ellul to regain the lead.

As the game went on, the standard rose again. Wright chipped a grubber kick through and chased in for the equalising try.

Duffy managed to fluff a certain try for Overseas by failing to see the unmarked man outside him, but Overseas did not give in. They won some good ball and perfectly-timed passing sent Wright in for the winning try, converted by Bolland which, incidentally, was the first and only conversion of the afternoon.